CNN=Politics Daily is The Best Political Podcast from the Best Political Team.

(CNN) — Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, picked up Friday where President Bush left off Thursday.

In the latest episode of CNN=Politics Daily, Sen. McCain and Sen. Barack Obama, the front-runner for the Democratic Party's nomination, spar over U.S. foreign policy in what appears to be a preview of a possible general election match-up.

CNN's Jim Acosta reports on how Obama responded Friday to Pres. Bush's remarks in Israel a day earlier.

Dana Bash is out on the campaign trail with McCain.  She reports on how the Democratic Party has targeted McCain in the wake of Bush's controversial comments and Wolf Blitzer brings you McCain's latest salvo launched at Obama during the Arizona senator's speech Friday evening in Kentucky.

The California Supreme Court's historic ruling Thursday striking down the state's ban on same-sex marriage may send shock waves through the 2008 presidential race that reverberate to the benefit of one candidate in particular.  Carol Costello takes a look at the politics of the gay rights issue.

It's Friday.  That means it's time for Jennifer Mikell's Trail Mix — a retrospective of the most memorable moments in the presidential race this week.

Finally, Wolf Blitzer recently sat down with both Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton.  In two special episodes of CNN=Politics Daily, watch Blitzer's entire interviews with the Democratic rivals.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) — CNN started 2008 with a political bang in the form of Ballot Bowl.

If you missed CNN's wall-to-wall political coverage Tuesday, the first Best Political Podcast of 2008 has highlights for you.

Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider also reports on a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Iowa poll.

Former Senator John Edwards speaks with Wolf Blitzer about his chief rivals — Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton — and about the recent support Edwards received from Ralph Nader.

Finally, will the legalization of same-sex civil unions in New Hampshire have any impact on who turns out for the Granite State's first-in-the-nation primary on January 8? Brian Todd takes a look a week before the voting in New Hampshire.

Click here to subscribe to The Best Political Podcast.

–CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Likely Republican primary voters in Florida oppose making same-sex marriage legal but say abortion should be legal in at least some circumstances, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Tuesday evening.

Less than 20 percent of the polled GOP voters said that abortion should not be legal under any circumstances, while 43 percent said it should be legal under "a few" circumstances. Nineteen percent said the procedure should be legal under all circumstances, and the remaining 15 percent said it should be legal under "most" circumstances.

On the question of whether same-sex marriages should be recognized as legally valid, 77 percent answered no while 19 percent answered yes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rudy Giuliani won a major conservative endorsement Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Pat Robertson, the television evangelist and Christian Coalition leader, endorsed Rudy Giuliani for President at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.

“The Giuliani campaign hopes this endorsement will help with inroads among evangelical Christians,” says CNN Chief National Correspondent John King.

It was Robertson’s 1988 presidential campaign that, while unsuccessful, cemented evangelical voters as a dominant force within the Republican Party.

Robertson has repeatedly praised Giuliani despite their major differences on social policy, such as abortion and gay marriage.

Both men say a friendship developed after a long conversation on a plane during a trip to Israel several years ago. Another thing both men have in common is that they are prostate cancer survivors.

Giuliani is the frontrunner in the national polls, but he trails in surveys in many of the early primary and caucus states, among them Iowa and South Carolina, where social conservative voters make up a major part of the Republican voting electorate.

Reacting to the Robertson endorsement, Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, one of Giuliani's chief rivals for the Republican nomination, said "you can't get them all."  Romney also touted his recent endorsements by conservative activist Paul Weyrich and Bob Jones III, president of the evangelical Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

Related: Giuliani, McCain pick up key Christian conservative backing

– CNN's John King, Paul Steinhauser, and Peter Hamby

Cate Edwards said she sides with her mother on the issue of gay marriage.

DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) – Cate Edwards took questions in Des Moines Sunday on behalf of her father, former Sen. John Edwards, D-North Carolina, but she could only answer a few without referring to a campaign staffer for the details of her dad's positions.

She needed no help, however, in responding to a question relating to her position on gay rights, specifically gay marriage.

"I'm on my mom's side with this, not my dad's," Edwards said. "It's the word 'marriage' that he is hung up on."

"It's not about gay rights," she added.

John Edwards has said he does not support gay marriage, but his wife, Elizabeth, does.

"He very much does not understand–he has trouble, I guess, with the term 'gay marriage.' I don't," Cate Edwards said.

"I'm not going to try to defend him on that because I don't agree with it, but that's where he stands. But I don't want it to be understood as not standing for gay rights because that's certainly not true."

Cate Edwards and 'Desperate Housewives' actor James Denton were at a stop during a two-day swing through the Hawkeye State stumping for the Edwards for President campaign.

Only about a half dozen questions were asked, but a significant amount of her answers included referrals to a campaign staffer named Oliver–so many, in fact, that his name was soon becoming a small running joke, even to Edwards.

"Oliver will get you that information. You should all get to know Oliver," Edwards said laughing.

Related video: Watch Cate Edwards explain her father's position on gay marriage

– CNN Iowa Producer Chris Welch

(CNN) — Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback disagreed with a local New Hampshire resident Wednesday night on the topic of same-sex marriage.

During Wednesday night's debate, Fox's Carl Cameron, on location at a local diner, asked a New Hampshire state employee whether she thought a federal constitutional amendment banning gay marriage should be passed. "Absolutely not," said Heidi Turcotte. "We're the state of 'live free or die', and people should be able to marry the person they love."

Cameron then tossed the same question to Brownback for his response.

"I understand this is a divided audience on this," replied Brownback. "And I understand we as a country are struggling with this question. But these issues aren't done in a vacuum." The presidential hopeful went on to say, "When you do these vast, social experiments — and that's what this is, when you redefine marriage, it's a vast, social experiment — they're not done in isolation. They impact the rest of the culture around you. When you take the sacredness out of marriage, you will drive the marriage rates down."

Brownback said more attention needs to be focused on strengthening families. "And currently in this country — currently — we're at 36 percent of our children born out of wedlock," he said. "You can raise a good child in that setting, but we know the best place is between a mom and a dad, bonded together for life."

–CNN Political Desk Editor Jamie Crawford

Watch Sen. John Mccain answer a high school student's question about his age in New Hampshire on Tuesday.

PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire (CNN) – Sen. John McCain’s visit to Concord High School proved to be more than your average guest speaker appearance Tuesday with the Republican presidential candidate giving and getting a dose of the campaign’s trademark “straight talk.”

During the question and answer session one student rose and asked a pointed question about McCain’s age: “If elected, you’d be older than Ronald Reagan, making you the oldest president. Do you ever worry that like you might die in office or get Alzheimer’s or some other disease that might affect your judgment?”

The Arizona senator chuckled slightly as the “oh my gods” filled the room. In a self-deprecating reference to his memory, McCain said his children have joked about their father “hiding his own Easter eggs,” but quickly added, that he was a “24-7” worker and would out campaign any of his rivals.

McCain then ended the exchange in his quintessential style: “Thanks for the question, you little jerk … you’re drafted.”

Full story: High schoolers pitch hardballs at McCain

– CNN Senior Political Producer Sasha Johnson

Brownback criticized an Iowa court ruling.

(CNN)–Senator Sam Brownback criticized an Iowa district court ruling that said same-sex couples have the right to marry.

"We should have the courage and conviction to speak out against this decision. The people of Iowa reject the redefinition of marriage, and I pledge to defend the bond of marriage, as I have consistently done in the past," the GOP presidential hopeful from Kansas said in a statement Friday. "This decision shows how important it is to elect leaders who will stand for marriage and who will appoint judges that will not legislate from the bench. We need to rebuild the family and renew the culture, not redefine marriage."

On Thursday, a Polk County judge in Iowa temporarily cleared the way for same-sex couples across the state to apply for marriage licenses in Polk County. He ruled that Iowa's 1998 Defense of Marriage Act, which allowed marriage only between a man and a woman, violated the constitutional rights of due process and equal protection of six gay couples who had sued.

On Friday, the county recorder stopped accepting marriage applications after the judge stayed his ruling pending a county appeal of the ruling to the Iowa Supreme Court.

– CNN Political Desk Editor Jamie Crawford

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Two men were married outside a minister's home in the state's first legal same-sex wedding Friday morning, less than 24 hours after a judge threw out Iowa's ban on gay marriage and about two hours before the same judge put his ruling on hold.

It was a narrow window of opportunity.

About 20 gay couples had applied for marriage licenses by 11 a.m. when the Polk County Recorder announced that she had been instructed to stop accepting the applications.

Click to read the full story

Mitt Romney in 2004 at a press conference regarding same-sex marriage in Massachusetts

DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who faced the issue as governor of Massachusetts, criticized an Iowa district court ruling Thursday that said same-sex couples have the right to marry.

A judge in Polk County, Iowa, said gay couples must be allowed to get married because of the state constitution's guarantee of equal treatment.  The judge also struck a state law that banned same-sex marriages and said valid marriage is only between a male and a female.  The ruling came in response to a lawsuit by six gay couples seeking permission to marry, and will now go to the Iowa Supreme Court.

Romney, leading in the Iowa polls after courting conservative support, was the first candidate to react to the decision.  In a statement, he said, "The ruling is Iowa today is another example of an activist court and unelected judges trying to define marriage and disregard the will of the people as expressed through Iowa's Defense of Marriage Act.  This once again highlights the need for a Federal Marriage Amendment to protect the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman."

Romney, who was governor when the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriages in 2004, did approve certificates allowing gay couples to marry.  But he worked with other opponents in an effort to overturn the state law, and has pushed for a national ban.

–CNN Political Desk Managing Editor Steve Brusk

Edwards said Monday night he didn't know his wife supported gay marriage.

BURBANK, California (AP) — There's a split in John Edwards' household over same-sex marriage, but he says his difference of opinion with wife Elizabeth hasn't created any awkward moments.

"It's not the only thing we disagree about," the Democratic presidential candidate quipped Monday on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

"She actually says what she thinks," Edwards said.

Elizabeth Edwards kicked off San Francisco's annual gay pride parade Sunday by declaring her support for legalizing same-sex marriage.

"I don't know why someone else's marriage has anything to do with me," she said.

The former North Carolina senator, sitting with his wife on Leno's couch, said he was unaware of her position on same-sex marriage and was surprised to learn about it while reading the newspaper.

"A lot of people I love and care about feel the same way Elizabeth does," he said. "I'm very strong about ending discrimination against gay and lesbian couples."

"But I'm not quite where Elizabeth is yet," he added.

No leading presidential candidate from either major political party has publicly supported same-sex marriage.

More: Where the candidates stand on same-sex marriage